Free The Helavite War by Theresa Snyder Page B

surveyed planets for possible
victims. The ships were small, silent running and very quick. They
probably snatched her before she knew what hit her much less had
time enough to scream. The Hydra usually kept a home ship at a
central location. Once it was full from the deliveries of the
smaller landing craft they took the load back to a base to be
sorted according to looks and talents. Then they distributed their
captives to the far corners of the universe for sale to the highest
bidder. Jake didn't hold out much hope for a rescue, but he told
Andrew he'd try. They were back on the ship within an hour headed
out.
    Jake heard a rumor several months ago, on
Outpost #45. Some trader thought he saw a Hydra landing craft close
to a planet in this section of the sector. It was very flimsy
information to go on. However, it was all that Jake had at the
moment. If there was a landing craft, then the home ship couldn't
be too far away. The landing crafts were definitely short distance
vehicles. If they could just find a home ship to follow to their
base, he'd be happy. What he'd do after that he had no idea. That
would come if they found it.
    "What are Hydra?" Arr asked one night, as
they sat on the pilot platform surveying the stars.
    "First off, Hydra isn't their real name. No
one has ever escaped them except into slavery. They say, the
Hydra's language can't be learned. So no one knows their real
name." Jake stretched and yawned, eliciting a reaction yawn from
Arr. "Way back, before my time some slave who used to be a teacher
compared them to the mythological beast Hydra. It stuck. The things
don't have multiple heads like the Greek monster, but they do
resemble snakes or more accurately lizards on two legs." Jake
frowned as he remembered the few he saw in the slave markets of the
Rigil system. "They live and work in planets that have caves.
Strong light hurts their eyes. When they're above ground they have
to wear sun goggles."
    Kay-o rolled over on Arr's feet for a tummy
rub. The dar-dolf had accepted the boy fully over the last few
months. Arr leaned over obligingly. "Will we be able to handle a
whole base operation?" Kay-o expressed his delight with the rub by
rumbling his pleasure deeply in his throat.
    "I believe so." Jake fleetingly considered
reprimanding Arr for spoiling the dar-dolf, but thought better of
it. It had been months since the beast needed to be bribed with a
glove. He followed Arr's orders well. "We have one thing in our
favor if we find the base. It'll be a small operation. The Hydra
are such ill tempered brutes that if you get too many in one spot
at a time a battle breaks out. So, they travel and deal their trade
in small bands of fifteen or twenty."

Chapter 31
    Arr thought he was lost. He couldn't get his bearing
in these dark tunnels. Jake told him not to mark the walls. Sure
you could follow your marks out, but the Hydra could follow your
marks to you just as well.
    Through some grand stroke of luck, Jake
found the home ship. They followed it to the base. Jake thought it
was better to wait for the home ship to unload her cargo, take her
fighting force and go before he and Arr went in.
    They found the mouth of the cave hours ago
and killed the sentry. They followed the dimly lit cave several
hundred yards to where it split into two tunnels, there they
divided up. Jake tried to send Kay-o with Arr. Arr said, he'd be
okay. These beings had such a foul odor to him that they would
never be able to sneak up on him. Jake might need Kay-o to be his
nose.
    Arr's tunnel split several times since then.
He tried to always bear right. If the tunnels connected at some
main room or hall Jake and he might run back together. This
maneuver was Jake's order. Arr had been doing his best to follow
it.
    He was standing at another junction in the
tunnels when he caught a faint whiff of a Hydra. The air was still
in here. He couldn't tell how close the thing was. He pointed his
blaster down the tunnel he thought the smell was